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Lyndale Neighborhood Association

This spring marks the end of the pilot year for the Lyndale Neighborhood Associations (LNA) Lyndale Women's Leadership Program (LWLP) whose goal is to develop Latina and Somali women in the Lyndale neighborhood as community leaders. The program builds relationships among the participants, offers different training sessions on a number of topics and skill building opportunities that are important to the Latina community and finally participants are expected to work on a community project.

Mark Hinds, Executive Director of LNA, gave this update on the Nexus supported project, saying,

“The Latina Leadership Program is going really well.  We are just getting ready for the women's fifth session tomorrow, the theme of which is going to be on education, both for the women and for their children.  So far it seems like the women are really starting to bond and are getting excited to start putting their skills to use.  We've been holding the sessions every other Friday at Zion church, which is in the neighborhood and close to where a lot of the women live.  It's worked really well holding them there, because it's given us room to provide food and have activities for the women's kids - which was a big challenge for us to figure out, since there are often more kids than women.”

In developing the program, LNA leaders spent time learning from other Latina leadership programs (such as the Mujeres program at Waite House) but could not find one that combined both place and culture.  In response to this learning, they’ve developed a program that does both.

In addition to this, the gatherings have also allowed LNA to bring in other institutional partners such as Youth Farm and the Blaisdell YMCA to work with the youth while the women are meeting. 

Evaluation plays a critical role in the program with LNA engaging the participants in reflection after each session in addition to having individual one on one sessions.  LNA also used a Nexus developed survey template in helping them gauge their experiences before and after participation in the program.  And while a formal graduation of this pilot year program is planned, LNA plans to continue the Latina co-hort by having them work on their community project so that the graduation does not become the programmatic end for the participants. 

Up next for LNA will be to replicate the program for local Somali women.  They have already begun to put some of the pieces in place with their Somali organizer.  Nexus looks forward to continued support of LNA and their efforts to develop the leadership of the Latina and Somali women in their community. 

 

 

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